Book 3, Chapter 148: An External Onslaught Felt To The Bones

Chen Chuan gave Meng Shu a heads-up and checked the entire manor. Once he was sure that nothing was amiss, he returned to his villa.

First, he removed his Realm Pass and grabbed a metal box to take one of the tubes out. After taking a look at the fluorescent liquid sloshing inside, he removed the cork and brought the tube to his lips. Then, he raised his arm and drank everything in one go.

The liquid had no taste. When it entered his mouth, it was as if it turned into gas that spread to his brain and all parts of his body.

In the beginning, he didn’t feel anything, but soon, his body began heating up. His mutated tissue seemed to have stirred awake and gained its own mind. When he let go of his restraints, all sorts of emotions rose in his heart.

Fortunately, Chen Chuan was experienced in this and wasn’t affected in the slightest. At that moment, he felt like his mind was out of his body, and he was watching everything like a spectator.

Just then, he sensed something and looked outside. Once again, he saw the huge vortex in the sky. Countless intermingling ribbons of light danced about, and the fragmented, annoying noises entered his ears. Both light and sound kept attacking his senses.

That wasn’t all. He noticed that some part of his body was changing. The floorboards and walls seemed to be pulsing slowly, and a voice in his head told him that this was the real world. What he saw on a daily basis were just illusions and incomplete images.

At the same time, he noticed that his body had become light, like his entire existence was becoming unstable or some restraint keeping his usually sturdy body together had snapped. His mutated tissue also seemed to be trying to force itself out of his body.

During the process, Chen Chuan could sense himself getting stronger. Even though this entire thing screamed of danger, the feeling of getting stronger was addictive.

The voice was also telling him to let himself loose. Even just a little more would be good. He could gain more benefits that way.

It won’t be dangerous at all.

But Chen Chuan didn’t relax. His gaze remained as cold and calm as ice.

Cao Guiqi’s warning remained at the forefront of his mind, allowing him to compose his mind and stay true to himself. He didn’t allow the onslaught of thoughts to break the shields around his mind.

But as the attacks continued, he found that his preexisting knowledge of the world was beginning to sway and change.

Since a person’s knowledge of the world came from their perception of their surroundings, when everything around them started changing, it was only natural that they could no longer stay the same.

Hence, if Chen Chuan was the slightest bit careless and let his preexisting knowledge of the world change even the slightest bit, he would start thinking that all of this was natural.

Upon realizing this, he let his second self absorb all the attacks.

In an instant, all the strange sights, lights, and sounds disappeared, and his mind became clear. Even the squirming walls and floors and indescribable sense of disorientation vanished.

Everything seemed to have returned to normal, though in truth, only his mind had returned to normal. His body and brain were still going through some sort of change due to the medicine’s effects.

Chen Chuan believed that this was some form of a domain effect. Even though he couldn’t tag such a simple explanation to many things happening right now, he believed that he could use this theory for now.

Based on what Cao Guiqi said, when the medicine’s effects kicked in, his physical body would weaken, and his mind would start getting closer to the other world to break some form of its fixed, preexisting limit. But at the same time, his body was going to take in everything from the other world without caring whether those things were beneficial or harmful to him.

In order to maintain his sense of self and not lose his mind, during that fight against the other world, Chen Chuan kept depleting the blood essence in his heart and his mind’s foundation.

It was no wonder why Cao Guiqi had kept stressing that he had to build a solid foundation. If he didn’t have enough blood essence and a strong foundation when he took the special medicine, then even if he managed to stay alive and remain sane the first few times, the aftereffects would still linger in his body, and some day, something would go wrong.

Usually, martial artists would already be counting their lucky stars if they were able to stay true to themselves while waiting for the medicine’s effects to fade. They wouldn’t be able to do anything aside from letting their mutated tissue grow based on the foundation they had built before this.

But with his second self absorbing the damage, Chen Chuan found that he could guide his mutated tissue’s growth and even restrict it. This allowed him to make use of the medicine to its greatest efficiency.

Time passed, and Chen Chuan started feeling the medicine’s effects weakening. The mutated tissue also started calming down. In a while, Chen Chuan got out of the state.

Right away, he noticed that more than three hours had passed, even though he felt like it had just been a short time.

He turned to check his second self and found that the effects were still there. Even though they were no longer strong, his second self was twisted, so Chen Chuan believed that this was the lingering effects Cao Guiqi spoke about.

It was no wonder why the government and companies kept the medicine under such strict control. If this medicine was provided to all Third Limit martial artists in abundance, then who knew just how many problematic martial artists would appear? They would also be incredibly powerful and could damage everything around them.

After taking the medicine, Chen Chuan could sense that both his mind and body had become stronger.

That wasn’t all. His mutated tissue had become active again, as if it had entered yet another period of rapid growth.

But, in truth, this meant that the medicine was still working its magic. It wouldn’t last for a long time, like the actual periods of rapid growth after reaching the First, Second, and Third Limits. Once the medicine’s toxic effects were completely expelled, this effect should stop, and it would be time to take the second dose.

Chen Chuan got up and put aside the things beside him before shutting the metal box and returning it to the cart. Then, he organized the stack of documents. Just then, he noticed words between certain lines.

Here was the problem: He had already skimmed through everything earlier and hadn’t seen any words between the lines. Where on earth did they come from?

Was there something wrong with his memories, or had he gained a new sensory ability from the contact with the other world?

Chen Chuan mulled over this and thought that it shouldn’t be that simple. He touched the words with his finger and found that they were written with special ink. The blood-red words were like squirming worms.

Then, he remembered Cao Guiqi saying that they couldn’t even talk about their experiences with the medicine. He had a feeling that whoever wrote those words couldn’t use direct means to tell others about his experiences, lest someone who hadn’t taken the medicine accidentally saw them. That was why they used a special method to write the notes. It made a lot of sense to do it that way.

The newly appeared words were divided into two sections. One part spoke about how to stay true to oneself when facing the abnormal sights, while the other part warned readers not to be enticed by them. If they lost their awareness, they would no longer be able to stay true to themselves.

Chen Chuan read through the words between the lines carefully and could sense just how much effort his predecessors had put into writing them. But Chen Chuan had his second self, which meant that he could skip this step entirely, though he didn’t mind hearing those words just in case.

Afterwards, he grabbed his Realm Pass and put it on. Then, he saw that he had received an audio message from Yan Yi ten minutes ago, so he played it.

“Mr. Chen, we need to tell you something. Could you come over to Miss Shu’s main manor?”

Chen Chuan: Sure.

He walked out of his villa and went to the main manor. When he arrived at the door, a middle-aged maid brought him to the living room. Meng Shu and Yan Yi were there. Meng Shu was sitting on a sofa, while Yan Yi paced about the living room with her fist tucked under her chin.

Once the maid left, Chen Chuan turned to the two women. “Did something happen?”

“Mr. Chen, the company requested for Miss Shu to attend a family meeting,” Yan Yi answered.

“And it’s compulsory?” Chen Chuan asked.

“That’s the problem. This time, the request came from Mr. Meng, and our technicians don’t have the authority to enter the family’s internal platform to check whether he was really the one who requested the meeting, so we can’t tell whether it’s real or not.”

This was the problem of them not being in the company: They couldn’t be certain of what was happening there. Even though some of the people in the middle management had stated that they were willing to side with Meng Shu, they were just showing goodwill before the successor was chosen and weren’t actually loyal to her.

Meng Shu’s true informants hadn’t managed to get high positions in the company yet, so they didn’t know any of the upper management’s decisions. In other words, they were useless.

Chen Chuan cast a glance at Meng Shu. “Do you think your grandfather is in danger?”

“I don’t think so. Mr. Meng has the best security team in the Meng family, and he’s also receiving the best medical treatment and security services. It’s much easier to kill Miss Shu than Mr. Meng. We can discard this possibility,” Yan Yi replied instead.

“Would you be in trouble if you don’t go?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Since the family meeting was requested in Mr. Meng’s name, Miss Shu has to go, or her reputation within the family will take a huge hit.”

“What’s your plan?” Chen Chuan asked.

“If Meng Huang is the one requesting the family meeting, then he wants to lure Miss Shu out of Motie Mountain and attack us while we’re on the way to the company. Mr. Chen, if we

are

attacked while we have all our security guards with us, will we be able to fend them off?”

“We don’t know how many men Meng Huang will send, so I can’t give you a sure answer. If he sends only one Third Limit martial artist, then I promise you, I will hold them back. But if he sends two or more of them, I’ll have a hard time protecting all of you,” Chen Chuan replied.

Yan Yi then declared, “That’s settled, then. We only have one choice. We have to stay in Motie Mountain, even if it means that Miss Shu might have her status as a potential successor taken away. This is our only choice.”

She then turned to Meng Shu. “Meng Huang should have considered the possibility of you not attending the family meeting. That’s why I have a feeling that his next action will be to use your grandfather’s name to take back all the security guards the family has allocated to you.

“If that happens, we’ll lose one-third of our protection, and it’ll be difficult to find another trustworthy team quickly.

“While we’ve ordered a batch of bioweapons, we can only purchase a limited number of nutritional injections. We can’t get more of them. Protecting you will become much more difficult.”

Finally, she turned to Chen Chuan, “Mr. Chen, you’ll be facing even more pressure once this happens.”

“Big Sis Yan, why don’t you head out for a bit?” Meng Shu said.

Knowing that this meant that Meng Shu had something to say to Chen Chuan, Yan Yi nodded. “Got it.”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

She left and shut the door behind her.